Did LVMH Fumble A $1 Billion Hollywood Opportunity?

Last year, LVMH made a power play to steal the rights from Rolex to sponsor Formula 1. A deal worth over $1 billion across 10 years became the biggest the sport had ever seen. LVMH’s takeover was a coup of giant proportions and only strengthened the group’s dominance in luxury.

The timing couldn’t have been better, with F1 at its peak and still growing thanks to Netflix and a 24-race calendar. With three races now in the US, it was clear the world’s biggest market was finally coming onboard after years of failed attempts.

TAG Heuer was back after a long absence. The brand has always been synonymous with F1, Ayrton Senna, Monaco and McLaren. Even further back, Steve McQueen made TAG Heuer famous in Le Mans over 60 years ago. When you think racing, you think TAG Heuer.

In 2023, the first whispers of an F1 movie dropped, with Brad Pitt and Joseph Kosinski directing the epic. Details were scarce apart from sightings of Pitt at races throughout 2024, dropping into live scenes as filming began. Arguably the biggest racing film in decades, it has been the talk of the sport leading into its New York premiere last week.

Is this the biggest movie in the past decade? Probably. F1 is now one of the biggest sports on the planet. Billions tune in every weekend. Now it has its very own Hollywood film, with one of the world’s biggest directors and actors at the helm.

But how did TAG Heuer not get involved? Instead, rival brand IWC seems to have pulled off one of the smartest marketing hijacks in years. As long-time partner of Mercedes-AMG F1, IWC has scored multiple wins with Lewis Hamilton, reportedly at a fraction of the cost many wou2ld assume. A bargain, some say.

So how did TAG Heuer miss one of the biggest marketing opportunities in their first year running F1?

There are a few theories. Lewis Hamilton’s involvement in the film brought Mercedes-AMG close to the production, making the link to IWC a natural fit. The fictitious team, loosely based on Mercedes-AMG, already had IWC in the frame. No doubt IWC’s no-nonsense CEO Chris Grainger-Herr played a smart hand here too.

Then there’s the Top Gun: Maverick factor, with IWC deeply involved in the film’s Top Gun collection. Kosinski was already familiar with the brand.

At Watches & Wonders in Geneva, it was motorsport season, with TAG Heuer and IWC going head-to-head with their activations. One had F1 The Movie, the other had decades of real F1 heritage. It was game on from the start. Every watch on display screamed Formula 1 and motorsport. IWC had Brad Pitt in their corner. TAG Heuer had the ghost of Ayrton Senna. One designed to win. The other cleverly hijacking a big Hollywood moment.

Unlike Steve McQueen’s Le Mans, will IWC score its own Monaco moment? Could Brad Pitt’s green-dial Ingenieur become a cult classic in 60 years? Unlikely, but let’s check back in half a century.

If the film delivers at the box office, it could pass $1 billion in ticket sales. But more importantly, what will be the brand impact? IWC’s cinematic coup against TAG Heuer’s 10-year omnipresence at every F1 circuit is the real race.

We’ll have to wait and see, but one thing is certain. IWC’s sponsorship of this film, with branding and watches splashed across the screen, is coup. At a time when luxury watch brands have pulled back on marketing due to economic uncertainty, this partnership could land huge brand awareness upside for the Swiss watchmaker.

Whatever happens next, grab the salted caramel popcorn and Maltesers. More watch brands will be looking to hijack the greatest show on earth.